A revolving door

Yesterday I was chatting with a friend of mine about life here as an SI Costa Rica staff person.  Just as a reminder, there are two main part to my job here: working with and ministering to the children of Los Guido in the Tutoring Center, and working with the short term teams that come down to partner with us for two weeks at our ministry sites.  Yesterday the third team of the summer left, and I found myself feeling kind of sad and down in the afternoon after I said goodbye to them at the airport.  I was telling my friend later that I knew that this was what it was going to be like; meeting new people, investing in them, serving alongside them, and then saying goodbye to them a short time later.  I've done camp ministry in the past, been a teacher to six different groups of first graders, and obviously said "goodbye" to my entire family and group of friends to move here.  But the hellos and goodbyes are going to be a way of life for me here, and I don't know if that's ever going to get easier.  Right now during the summer season, there are a lot of people coming and going, kind of like a revolving door.  Come fall season, things will be a lot quieter and the kids at the tutoring center will probably be a bit disappointed for a while when it is only Jose and I showing up to work without our intern Rebekah and a group of "gringos."  

So what does that mean for me?  It means that I want to try and invest in the people that are here, now, as best as I can.  I want to not worry about the future or having to say goodbye to people the moment I meet them, because then I will never be able to learn to know them or learn from them.  I want to be thankful for the people that are here full time with me and will still be here at the end of summer.  And I want to be encouraged and energized by the teams that come for the short term because we are able to do special projects, field trips and work with more kids because they are here.  They really are an important part of our ministry.  I'd ask that you could pray for me, that my heart would not become calloused to the "revolving door" of people coming in and out of SI Costa Rica, but that I would be able to love and serve them, with the Lord's strength and love, as best I can.  And to know that it's ok to be a bit sad to say goodbye, that means that it was energy and investment well spent and that there was a lot of love there.

Here are some photos of friends I've gotten to know since being here, either just for a few weeks, a few months, or we are here together for the long haul:

L to R: Cailah, interns Chelsea, Courtney and Rebekah, me

Intern Courtney, also my brother Aaron's girlfriend :)

Matchy matchy roommates, I'm so thankful to have her as a friend!

Friend Rebecca in the middle there, she is here doing language school for a few months and has been an awesome chica to get to know and hang out with.

Caleb and Austin, the two guys that were at my site this past outreach.  I will miss them.

Team LG as we like to call ourselves.  The tutoring center crew from this last outreach.

My lovely intern Rebekah.  She is here for a few more weeks.  Love this girl.

15 dias de vacacciones

We are right in the middle of the two week "winter vacation" that the kiddos around here have off from school.  We also have a team here during these two weeks, so we have been able to do some fun activities with the kids that they wouldn't normally get to do during school days.  

This past Thursday we took 20 kids from Los Guido, along with 8 adults/team members, lots of peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches, brownies, bananas, balls of all types, and a first aid kit to a local park.  Los Guido is surrounded by beautiful green mountains, but the kids don't get out of their community very often, so this was a real treat for them.  We only had one bloody knee (glad we had the first aid kit!) and a few kids complain that they didn't like peanut butter, but all in all, it was a really fun day!  It was such a treat to get to enjoy the kids and their energy and joy in a different setting.  Below are some pictures from our day together:

See-sawing it up

Team member Sunshine and some of the girls

Sweet Jefferson and me

Fabian, team member Caleb and my lovely intern Bekah

Two regular kiddos Wayner and Jordany

Jose giving a "talk" to our kids

Team member Ben is enjoying himself

Captured this when Eliza grabbed my hand while we were sitting together.  Sweet girl. 

 This next week we are going to do some baking and decorating cookies with the kids, art, a visit to the Children's museum, and TBD on Friday.  I am looking forward to all of these extra curricular activities and am blessed by the awesome team members we have with us these two weeks from Hanford, CA and Oregon.  We couldn't do it without them!

And here are some fun pics with my fellow SI staffers:

Jose and me in a photo that is indicative of our friendship and work partnership :)

"Mug shots" we took on the 4th of July, "Free like a Boss."  Thought up by our interns, not quite sure where that came from but I went along with it.  :)

L to R Cailah (my roomie), interns Rebekah, Tyler, me, and Chelsea enjoying 4th of July colored flan.  I wanted to make something patriotic and they didn't have instant pudding at the store I went to so flan is what we had to go with.  Turned out ok.